The LTTE won't be able to ``prevent losing their remaining 3,000 cadres,'' The Media Center for National Security cited Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka as saying in an interview with the Sri Lankan media. ``We have weakened the LTTE by 50 percent or more. It is evident that the outfit is in total disarray.''

The army has killed more than 500 rebels in the past few months, Fonseka said. The LTTE, in recent comments, said its forces repulsed the latest army offensives.

Sri Lanka increased military operations and targeted LTTE leaders after the army captured the eastern region in July, leaving the Tamil Tigers in control of bases only in the north. The attacks are designed to force the LTTE to abandon its armed struggle and seek a political solution to the issue of Tamil separatism, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said last week.

LTTE bases in the Wanni region in northwestern Sri Lanka are surrounded after the army captured the main camps in the area, Fonseka said. The LTTE's arms smuggling operations have been curtailed after the navy sank seven vessels used as ``floating warehouses'' this year, he said.

The government said earlier this month it has information that rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was wounded in an air raid on the group's headquarters at Kilinochchi in the north on Nov. 26.

``There is no assurance that the LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran would survive for the next six months as the Sri Lanka Air Force plans to attack all the LTTE bases,'' Fonseka said.

Mannar Battle

Soldiers killed 22 rebels in a battle in the Mannar district in the northwest two days ago, the Media Center said on its Web site.

At least 20 soldiers were killed when Tamil Tiger forces repulsed an army advance in the area, TamilNet reported at the time, citing the LTTE. Three Tamil Tigers were killed, it cited the group as saying.

The LTTE, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union and India, has been fighting for a separate homeland in the South Asian island nation for the past 24 years, in a conflict that has killed 70,000 people.

Before the fall of the Eastern Province, the LTTE was estimated to have a force of about 12,000 fighters as well as 4,000 members of its naval unit, known as the Sea Tigers.

The government held two rounds of peace talks with the LTTE in Geneva last year without making any progress, resulting in an increase in fighting in the northern and eastern regions.

Rajapaksa's government says it is prepared to devolve some powers to regions. It rejects any settlement that would divide the country of 20 million people where Tamils make up 11.9 percent of the population and Sinhalese almost 74 percent, according to the 2001 census.

Rajapaksa, in his Nov. 7 budget speech, vowed to ``eradicate'' terrorism in the country and increased defense spending by 19 percent to help combat the insurgency.